BORA Magazine 02|2018 – English

EXPERIENCE TREND REPORT

EXPERIENCE TREND REPORT In the decades that followed, the functional boundaries between kitchens, dining rooms and living rooms gradually broke down again. Eating and drinking really came into its own in Germany. Amateur chefs cooking at home treated their guests to dishes that would not have been out of place in a Michelin-star restaurant. The kitchen became a creative workshop – as well as a showpiece visible from the dining area. Property developers and builders have paid heed to the change in people’s attitudes towards life and home living with new architectural styles and room layouts. This particularly applies in urban and affluent regions, especially with regard to the ever-more prevalent single and double-income, no-kids apartments, which have loft-like floor plans and are loved by their inhabitants. Here, the bedroom is no longer just a place to sleep at night; with a desk in the corner, a cosy reading area and/or a comfy sofa bed, it is also used during the day. The bathroom has developed from a tiled washroom into an oasis of well-being. Trend researchers even refer to the bathroom as the new kitchen. Whereas the kitchen is the new car, as we already know. Similarly to dining rooms, spectacular living rooms have lost their purpose. Nowadays, they largely function as an intimate place for the family to read, listen to music or watch TV. And the large dining table is no longer only used for meals; kids do their homework on it and parents use it as a temporary desk for working on their PC, smartphone or tablet. And when guests come to visit, the entire evening is spent on the comfortable chairs at the long table. The kitchencum-living room of yesteryear has essentially become an all-purpose kitchen. This is not least thanks to BORA’s cooktop extractor systems, which are gradually banishing the bulky, annoying monstrosities known as extractor hoods from houses and apartments. Instead, active systems at the hob itself suction vapours into the filter below the cooktop – almost invisibly. The ceiling above the cooktop remains free for strategically placed or simply attractive lighting, and pictures can hang over wall-fitted stoves instead of a hood. Architects and designers love the freedom they are given by the flexible layouts and the new possibilities. So too do the inhabitants. Otherwise, this trend of open-plan living would never have taken off. 72 BORA MAGAZINE

In smaller and studio apartments in particular, getting rid of the bulky extractor hood enhances the aesthetic appeal of the entire kitchen area. Photo: k vorm bvba kortrijk, portrait: Bärbel Miebach BARBARA FRIEDRICH After leaving school, Barbara Friedrich, born in 1951, trained as a foreign language correspondent and later studied communication sciences, literature and philosophy at Ruhr-University Bochum. Since the early 1980s, her journalistic work has focussed on the topics of design, architecture and home living. Following executive roles at the magazines Ambiente, Elle Decoration and Architektur&Wohnen, she took over as editor-in-chief of Zuhause Wohnen in 1993 and of A&W Architektur&Wohnen by the Jahreszeiten Verlag in Hamburg in 1999, where she worked until 2016, ultimately as the magazine’s publisher. Since then, Barbara Friedrich has worked as a freelance author, presenter and judge in the design scene. Barbara Friedrich produces video clips about design classics, which can be viewed on YouTube and her own website www.barbarafriedrich.de. She was the initiator and co-author of the Euro Design Guide (Heyne Verlag, 1991) and is a member of the German Design Council, where she sat on the executive committee for many years. BORA MAGAZINE 73